Germans “liquidate” Ghetto in Dvinsk; No Jews Left in Minsk and in Vitebsk

With the Russian Army advancing towards the Baltic countries, it was reported here today that the German authorities have “liquidated” the ghetto in the Latvian city of Dvinsk and transported the 11,000 Jews remaining there to an “unknown destination.”

Swedish newspapers reporting details of the capture of Minsk by the Red Army, state that the Germans prior to their retreat from Minsk, set the ghetto afire. Not a single Jew was found by the Russians in Minsk when they entered the city.

A Moscow report describing the situation in Vitebsk, which was a heavily-populated Jewish city before the war, says that no Jews were left alive by the Germans “Vitebsk, once the pride of Byelorussia, is now almost completely destroyed,” the report states. “The streets are filled with debris, broken glass, stones and bricks. The Germans mercilessly demolished every building and reduced everything to ruins.”